Rusty Cage
by WeShouldGetJerseys
Summary: Just a drabble for the Much Music promo where Cam says, "I just want to be happy." This is just a prediction, so don't sue me if it doesn't happen!


_Okay, so since I got a lot of positive feedback for Against the Sky, I decided to do another Maybell oneshot (:_

_This is just a drabble from the Much Music Week 4 promo where Cam says, "I just want to be happy." _

_If you've seen the TeenNick promo, Cam is sitting on a railing at the school and seems to be hyperventilating (having another anxiety attack most likely), so I wanted to write my predictions for that before it airs. I have no idea what to call this, so I'm just going to call it Rusty Cage, like the episode is called._

_Also! For those who are interested I'm working on an EClare fic, which'll either be a one-shot, two-shot, or three-shot, not sure yet. It's Eli finding out about Clare's harassment. Not sure what it'll be called yet, but I'll inform you when I know (:_

_Anyway, hope you enjoy!_

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Degrassi, Campbell Saunders, Maya Matlin, Mike D- Okay, what the Hell am I doing? Y'all know I don't own anything except this fic. :)

**Rusty Cage**

There he sat, on a railing over-looking the hall of Degrassi, wondering how he got here, to this exact moment.

A few months ago, hockey was everything to him. Hell, he's been playing hockey since he was really young. It was actually his brother Justin who got him into it, and since Justin was older than Cam, he could feel his older brother slipping away from him with each passing year. As Justin grew older, he distanced himself from the family and spent all his time with his friends. Cam just wanted to be as close to his brother as he used to be. So he started playing hockey at school, and asking Justin to practice with him.

It worked; the two brothers were as close as ever. Everything was perfect.

Then Cam got the opportunity to come to Canada and play hockey at Degrassi. He knew it would make his family proud, so he said yes, and packed his bags. Now here he is, in Toronto, hating hockey. Er, it wasn't hockey he hated, so much as his team mates.

Ever since he had gotten himself his first girlfriend, Maya Matlin, his confidence had boosted some. He felt like he was on top of the world, he was so over the moon that a girl as amazing as Maya wanted to be with him. The brief kiss they shared (the first ever kiss for the both of them) was enough to make him feel really good about himself.

He started getting distracted during practice, Maya being the only thing his mind could focus on. The team noted that he was off his game, and they were not happy.

It wasn't until the first game after getting together with Maya that the team found out who exactly it was that was diverting his attention from the game.

"_Woo! Go Cam!" Maya shouted, jumping up and down excitedly in her seat next to Tristan, and clapping her hands together. This was the first hockey game she had ever been to, and since her boyfriend was actually in the game, she didn't know exactly how she was supposed to act. It didn't seem like any of the other team members had girlfriends (not surprising- most of them were complete jerks), so she just decided to go with cheering like an insane woman, like girls do in the movies._

"_Jeez, Maya, calm yourself." Tristan said, rolling his eyes at his friend. He didn't like Cam in __**that **__way anymore, deciding to focus all his attention on the musical, so he was all for the Maya and Cam relationship. In fact, he totally shipped them together. But that didn't mean he enjoyed watching Maya swoon for the boy and talk nonstop about him. Well, they did have to endure him talking all about the musical. But he had to stay focused on the musical all the time, because if he wasn't, Eli would surely kill him. Unless, of course, Clare was present. _

"_I can't help it!" Maya squealed, grabbing Tristan's arm with her left hand, making him look at her. "He's my first ever boyfriend, and I want to support him. This is the only way I know how! Besides, it's nice watching him."_

_Tristan sighed, shaking his head slightly, before looking back to Cam about to shoot a goal. "I guess it is nice to watch him. Considering he's hot and all."_

"_Tristan!" she gasped, slapping him playfully on the arm. Suddenly the crowd roared with cheers, and they saw that Cam had scored. _

"_Good job Cam!" she screeched, making Tristan just laugh to himself, and Campbell finally turned his attention to her._

_A smile spread across his face as he glided slowly across the ice, not breaking eye contact with her. Maya blushed and smiled back, waving to him. He blushed slightly too, and waved back, before he crashed into the glass/plastic cover blocking the audience. The whole crowd 'oooh'ed as Mike Dallas pulled Cam to his feet, mumbling, "Pull your head out of your ass, Rookie, and get your head in the game." to him._

_He pushed Cam back towards his spot on the ice, then turned and looked straight at Maya. She tried to hide her face, but he saw it. His eyes flashed in understanding, before an evil grin took over his face. Rookie's got himself a girlfriend._

After the game was over, the Toronto Ice Hounds barely beating the opposing team due to their star player's distraction, Luke and Dallas cornered Cam in the locker room.

"_So, you got yourself a girlfriend, Rookie?" Luke taunted._

_Cam, unaware they were taunting him, blushed and stuttered out, "Er… Y-yeah. I do." A smile overtook his face as thoughts of Maya flooded into his mind. _

"_Is she good?" Dallas asked, leaning casually against a row of lockers, his ankles crossed. _

"_Uh, what?" Cam asked, confused as to what they were referring to her being good at. The cello? Kissing? Yes, she was very good at both of those._

_Luke and Dallas glanced at each other before bursting out laughing. "Is she good in bed, Rookie?" Luke repeated, rewording the question this time so he would understand._

_He blushed profusely. "Oh, er, um-"_

"_Based on your lack of a verbal reply, she must render you speechless every time." Dallas said, slapping Luke on the back. "Care to share her with us?"_

"_What?" Cam said, still not even sure how the conversation turned into this. _

"_Ugh, Rookie, keep up." Luke groaned. "You don't keep a girl around long enough to be a girlfriend unless she's good in bed. Since this girl's your girlfriend, she must be pretty good. We want a piece of the action. Didn't your mommy ever teach you to share?" Him and Dallas laughed to themselves loudly._

"_What the Hell is your problem?" Cam asked, finally finding his voice again, and pushed Luke away from him._

"_Come on, Rookie. If you don't share, we'll just have to take it by force." Dallas said with finality, before him and Luke bumped fists and turned around and walked away, back to their stuff. _

_Cam dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans, shoving his hockey stuff in his duffel bag, before leaning against the wall. He tried to take deep breaths, to calm himself. Everyone else had already left the locker room so they could catch the bus, but he was getting a ride from Katie, whom Maya had to beg to get her to agree to it. _

_**Oh God, **__he thought to himself, __**Please don't let me be having a panic attack right now.**_

_After a few minutes, he seemed calm enough. He grabbed his Toronto Ice Hounds jacket, slipping on quickly, before grabbing his duffel bag in one hand. He had to see Maya, just to assure himself that she was okay._

"_Maya!" he called out, seeing her with her back to him, breathing a sigh of relief._

_She turned, seeing him running towards her, and she walked to meet him halfway. "Cam, you were-"_

_He cut her off by cupping her face with both hands and smashing his lips to hers. This kiss was different than all the other ones that they'd shared. The ones before this were always short, sweet, and chaste kisses that they'd found a brief moment to steal them in. This kiss was panicky and desperate, at least, on Cam's side. Maya was surprised at the force he was putting into it, but didn't have the heart to complain, being too caught up in the kiss itself._

_When he finally pulled away and placed his forehead against hers, breathing hard with his hands still on her face, she breathlessly continued her earlier sentence, "…great…"_

_He smiled at her, so glad that she was okay, and he could stop panicking, and she smiled back in return, both of them seeming to have forgotten that a shocked Katie was standing right in front of them._

After that kiss, and Dallas and Luke's threat, he was even more distracted during practice. He couldn't stop imagining them hurting _his _Maya, and the smug grins on their faces whenever he looked at them didn't help to ease his anxiety.

The team continued to tease and harass him, about Maya, about hockey, anything they could find to pick on him about. His love for hockey was dying out, and fast.

So he started skipping practice.

At first, skipping practice was just for him to get a clear head and calm himself before he really had another panic attack and ended up in the girl's room again. Then, the opportunity to spend even more time with Maya opened up, and she became the reason he skipped hockey.

They had little dates during the hockey time. It was perfect.

Then, one day they had to go back to the school to get something from Maya's locker, and Dallas and Luke must've been snooping around there, because there they were when Cam and Maya approached.

_They said nothing to Maya, studiously ignoring her presence, and Luke put his hand on Cam's shoulder. "Hope you like to pay, Rookie." He said, before pushing him away from Maya and dragging him off to practice with Dallas right behind them. _

They started pushing him twice as hard; trying to mold him back into the perfect little star player he had been before Maya came along. There was so much pressure on him to be perfect, so much teasing and taunting from the guys that he just wanted an easy way out.

That's why he was on the railing. He needed to get injured; if he had a broken leg, broken arm, sprained, ankle, or anything, then he couldn't physically be able to play. He'd be rid of all the pain they caused him, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

He was going to jump, and try to land on one of his arms, so it would break. He couldn't play hockey with a broken arm.

He started breathing hard, hyperventilating at the thought of how deep the fall would be, when a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him over the railing.

"Cam!" the person exclaimed, and Cam, realized that it was Maya who had pulled him back over. "What were you doing? Were you trying to kill yourself?"

He took in a breath to calm himself, and turned his head to face Maya, who was on her knees kneeling next to him. He sat up slowly and looked down at his hands, trying to find the words needed to explain himself to his girlfriend. Would she accept the truth?

He decided against lying, and looked up to meet her horror-stricken expression. He sighed, and grabbed both her hands in his. "Maya, I-" he cut himself off and took another deep breath, looking straight into her eyes, "I just want to be happy." He choked back a sob.

She pulled one of her hands from his and placed it on his thigh in a comforting gesture, seeing he was close to tears. "I thought you were happy. I mean, when we were together you always looked happy, and you have hockey-"

He cut her off, "Hockey's not fun for me anymore. I can't stand their teasing, and their threats about forcing you into bed." A lone tear slipped down his face, but he never took his eyes off hers. "Promise me you'll stay away from them. They're dangerous, they're- just… Please."

"I promise, Cam." She immediately said. She didn't even want to go near them anyway. "But Cam, this doesn't explain what you were doing on the railing." She said this gently, but firmly. She really wanted answers.

"No matter where I went when I skipped practice, they always found me and roped me back in. I just wanted to get away from hockey, from them. I thought that getting hurt would be the only way. Then I couldn't play and they wouldn't be able to force me to."

"Oh, Cam…" Maya breathed out. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to a hug, allowing him to sob into her chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, feeling like safe in her arms.

"I'm going to help you break out of this rusty cage." She said, pulling back to look at him again. "I promise."

_Okay, this took me like almost four hours. 5 pages on word! WOO :D R&R and tell me what you think (: _

_Also, someone asked if I take request stories and YES I WILL. I've never done it before, but I think it would be great to write what someone wants to see, so just PM or leave in a comment any requests you have. _

_Thanks for reading! :D _


End file.
